It was a different case — and a different judge — but the verdict was pretty much the same. Once again, the federal court handling Operation Car Wash-related cases convicted former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for corruption and money laundering, dishing out a similar sentence to his first conviction: 12 years and 11 months. This time around, Lula was found guilty of concealing the ownership of a country house in Atibaia, in the greater São Paulo area, adjudged to be a kickback from construction companies.
According to federal prosecutors, the construction companies Schahin, OAS, and Odebrecht paid bribes in exchange for hefty contracts with the public administration. In her sentence, Federal Judge Gabriela Hardt said “there is no doubt that [the companies] paid for the beautification of a property used by former President Lula,” and that the kickbacks were funded by money embezzled from Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil and...
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